by Ken Gordon and Jane Jackson
Saturday by Ken
Saturday on the
dive formally know as Salcombe...
Off to N50°20'56.67"
W3°34'38.47" (aka Dartmouth harbour office steps...) we go, 105 of
Dagenham's best horses dragging two sets of dive kit up hills almost at walking
pace.
In Dartmouth
various members of bsac42 leap out of a waterside breakfast place and point us
the correct way.
The boat is blue
and quite cosy, very much a squash and a squeeze.
Once all the kit
has been shoehorned into place all the drivers are thrown off to make more room
or maybe to park *on the other side of the river* we motor across to pick them
up on the Kingswear side.
The first dive was
a low reef off Tinsey Head, a bit north of Start Point and offering a good view
of the lighthouse.
The bottom, about
15 to 18m, was a mixture of boring sand with the odd scallop and more
interesting rock formations. These were like slate on edge, rising maybe a
meter or so, with lots of long thing gullies to hide in. Hiding was further
aided by the poor vis, maybe a couple of metres. There were plenty of crabs,
mostly swimming ones but a couple of medium sized edible ones too. A few small
fish were hanging about but mostly the game of not losing your buddy occupied
the mind. It couldn't have been too bad though, we lasted about 40 minutes
before starting back for the surface.
After some hours
trying to figure out how to get the less liquid fraction of chicken soup out of
a mug while motoring north back towards Dartmouth we jumped in for the second
dive. This was on an underwater pinnacle lying between a couple of sets of
rather pointy and upright rocks on the north side of the river mouth.
The bottom is in
the twenty somethings, we saw 19, and the top about 10. This was rather like
diving a wreck life wise, with the usual pouting and pollock appearing as
silhouettes in the mixed vis, dead mens fingers and some great anemones. The
vis varied from "ooops where has she gone?" to maybe 3m. Despite the
rubbish vis this was a good dive, we managed nearly fifty minutes, and would be
excellent dive in better conditions.
The grey but calm
day had deteriorated to a grey an blowy day, so getting out was more of
fairground ride than usual. Since we were close to home it didn't take long to
get back in, get air, go to the pub etc...
Sunday by Jane
Arrived in Dartmouth Harbour at 8.00 am, and
the place was already buzzing. A much more pleasant day, sun was shining and
much of Dartmouth seemed to be taking the opportunity to get into their boats
and yachts, the gig racing heats had started before we left the harbour, as a
prelude to the following weekend’s Dartmouth Regatta.
First dive of the day was on an old collier
the Bretagne which sank in 1918. The wreck is around 250ft (70m) in length and
lies in about 30m of water, about 5 miles east of Torquay. The shot line was
well sited on the wreck and Brett and I made an easy descent to the upper deck
of the wreck. As with all the dives of the weekend, the visibility was poor,
but might have been the best of the four, at about 3m for most of the time. The
wreck actually looked like a ship, not just the usual hunks of strewn metal so
often found. It was also very popular with fish, although I failed to see any
congers, which several buddy pairs spotted, there were more fish mainly pouting
and pollock on this wreck (albeit spotted through the gloom) than I’ve seen in
UK waters – which explained the presence of anglers over the wreck and the odd
bits of filament and angling weights caught up on the wreck. Swam between decks
coming up beside a pulley encrusted on to the deck. Swam over the side and came
across several edible crab in the crevices caused by the degradation of the
wreck. Brett found a good sized lobster but couldn’t persuade it out of its
hidey-hole. There were several types of anemone together with dead man’s
fingers. Made our way back to the shot line, and used it to ascend, making the
usual safety stop at 6m.
The second dive site was back towards
Dartmouth at the Mewstone (there seems to be several of these – certainly one
near Plymouth, and I guess is a name given to rocks offshore frequented by sea
birds). The tedium of the journey was enlivened by lots of sea birds,
particularly gannets diving/plummeting into the water and the wind was also
beginning to pick up a bit so it was more bouncy. We anchored in the shelter of
the Mewstone and soup was served (an interesting variation on pulse and smoked
meat) lentil, I think, and smoked sausage.
The Mewstone was formed of a ridge of rock
square to the land, which continued in a curve under water for some distance.
The top of the ridge was some 11-8m deep and landward side descended to about
20 m, with the seaward down to at least 30m. The shot was on the landward side.
Brett and I descended down the shot, tracking the ridge away from the Mewstone
on the landward side. Briefly popping over to the seaward side, before tracking
the top of the ridge back into the shelter of the Mewstone. There was not so
much life here as there had been in the morning, but lots of small starfish and
a few pieces of soft coral, together with several spider crab. Made a more
rapid ascent than was desirable, and Brett followed shortly afterwards.
On the journey back to Dartmouthit was clear
that the wind had continued to pick, but fortunately it was only a short
journey back to Dartmouth. However, during the course of the journey the
skipper checked the shipping forecast and informed us that the following day
would be force 5-7, southerlies – and therefore with the wind blowing straight
on to land, no sheltered spots along the coast for diving the next day.
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